Another Versailles has had its beautiful 9″ rear axle with disc brakes torn out of its less-than beautiful rear end. It will now grace someone’s hot Mustang or such, and this sad Versailles will soon have an appointment with the Grim Crusher. What a pity. But at least the Versailles’ best asset will live on.
It wont go to the crusher before the front spindles and brakes end up on somebody’s 70-71 Maverick project!
That’s such a shame. That Versailles looks way too nice to crush – even if it is an automotive loser.
I totally agree. Nice color combo also.
I’d say it just lost it’s ass et
Unless the backside is pretty smooshed in, it looks rather nice here.
If there’s significant body damage in the rear, no wonder it’s now a parts donor car.
Wonder if someone’s got the motor already, judging by the not quite closed all the way hood.
This shot reminds me of that urban legend where after a night of partying, the guy wakes up in a bathtub of ice and with no kidneys. I feel sorry for the poor Lincoln here. Even though I know that it really isn’t a Lincoln.
This Versailles is one of the 1979-80 versions with the more formal roofline. Those are rare beasts, particularly the 1980 model.
I always thought that the Versailles in good shape would make a decent daily driver. It’s not valuable enough to coddle – let alone restore – but it’s distinctive, plush and the right size for today. The upgrades over the Granada also make it more pleasant to drive.
It’s interesting what makes a “bad” car. If the Granada hadn’t existed, the exclusivity issue would have been dead. If Lincoln had priced the car at the bottom of the scale, it would have turned Cadillac’s Seville business model on its head.
This looks like one of the late versions that had a unique roof line compared to the Granada. If they had introduced this car, maybe tweaked the rear a bit more, done some work with the suspension, and given it an entry level Lincoln price point, it might have been a rocking success.
I know it might be regarded as sort of sick, but it looks like there are a lot of great body parts on this car. Moving what you could to a Granada coupe would be a kind of fun project.
They should have priced it cheaper, its was a lesser car than a Seville, I suspect that making it cheaper would have done little to hurt the Seville, which already was selling like hotcakes, but it would have even further cheapened Lincolns image.
If there was no Granada, there wouldn’t have been a Versailles, Ford was entirely too cheap to ever engineer this car for Lincoln only. The thing is that the Versailles could have done better for Lincoln if they would have bothered to give a damn on the detailing of the car.
All valid points. Proof that a car’s success depends a lot on the car, and maybe even more on external forces – economy, competition.
Cadillac was first to the game with the Seville, and technically there was some value in their price – I recall they were loaded and few options remained. I suppose the average DeVille or Fleetwood ticket probably exceeded the Seville after typical options were added. GM pulled off quite a feat with their strategy on this one.
Priced and equipped as an entry level Lincoln, the Versailles would have been positioned for the long term where the smaller sedan has the smaller price, and would have made the Lincoln brand more welcoming of people that did not enjoy driving giant cars. For all the blue hairs that insisted on sitting on a pillow and driving a tank, some were afraid of them. There are a lot of stories along the lines of Bob died and Dolores sold the Electra, DeVille, New Yorker, Marquis, Ninety-Eight, etc. (With due respect to the Hopes).
Lido had success spinning up new cars on the cheap, but cut too many corners on this one. And, GM beat him to the punch, setting an odd pricing strategy that worked for Cadillac for a few years.
Am I correct that the late 1970’s Chrysler LeBaron was an attempt to compete with both this Lincoln and the Seville? The Chrysler was priced thousands of dollars less.
The LeBaron evolved into the Fifth Avenue which I think was still selling very well in the late 1980’s.
The late 70s LeBaron was priced to go up against Cutlass and Regal, not against the Seville, which was a hugely expensive car. Up through 1975, LeBaron had been a model name for the expensive Imperial, but after the Imperial got killed in 1975, the LeBaron name got re-used for a mid-priced smaller car. After 1975, Chrysler completely abandoned the high end of the market until the 1981 Imperial, then when that flopped, abandoned it again.
I seem to recall that some of the early LeBaron ads made comparisons to the Seville and Versailles, along the lines of “just as much luxury at half the price”.
Fox body project? Aren’t these rear ends mainly scavenged for ’65-’73 Mustangs (i.e.: Falcon platform cars)?
Quite right. Fixed.
Aussie Falcons had a 9 with discs on most later 351 equipped cars in some unlimited states you could get some serious speed going and they demand you go at 60kmh thru the occasional town.
Are we sure it is going to the crusher? It could be missing its rear axle simply because the rear is to be rebuilt or replaced with a donor rear end? It has tags on it(or at least the front) and in MD when you junk(or get rid of the car) tags must be returned or you get fined
Not 100% certain, but this is an impound lot only; but not the kind you go to reclaim your from. The cars that end up here are either sold off or go to the junk yard/crusher. And they don’t fix cars there. I suspect it had to be towed away for one reason or another, and I rather doubt someone is going to buy it and replace its rear end. 99% certain.
So was it stolen and dumped sans rear end?
I don’t know that for a fact, but given what this guy hauls and stores, I’d say that was the best guess. Everything he has there he also sell, so these are not impound cars in the usual sense. Unless someone wanted an axle-less Versailles, this one might likely not end up back on the road.
Do these things have a fully leathered up dash and steering wheel? It seems so in pictures. If so I’m not thrilled that they got that treatment and not my 79 collector’s series town car. And were they really that bad as cars? Yes, I can see how the platform sharing can come in for ridicule, but there’s a website devoted to these cars and it seems like ford tried very hard to differentiate the suspension, and enhance production quality
There’s a really clean ’79-’80 in the west side Cleveland Pull-A-Part, even tho it’s a rather repulsive shade of tan it’s still way too nice to go to the boneyard. C’est la vie.
Ive been organ harvesting a pair of Hillmans lately I got 2x 1600cc motors with front axle and gearsack attached and one set of disc brakes, I also heve been given a Singer Gazelle interior I must go and get its a whole car again or was untill someone swiped the diff
A lot of heat has been placed on the shoulders of the Lincoln Versailles and much of it is looking back in hindsight. I was 18 years old in 1977 when these were introduced as ’78 models. Granted, one thing agreed upon at the time and in retrospect were that Versailles (’77 1/2 and ’78’s) had no real distinctive styling features to set it apart from the Mercury Monarch Ghias sold in the same showroom for about $4-$5K less.
I do remember getting a launch brochure that described the many mechanical and appearance amenities of the Versailles over it’s lesser FoMoCo Granada/Monarch and it’s competition. The Versailles bragged of each car individually inspected and road tested. Much like the Continentals’ of the early 1960’s. It was the first production car to offer clearcoat paint and halogen headlights. The insulation was thicker and heavier than it’s FoMoCo siblings; Versailles bragged of exceptional quietness. The accelerator cable was insulated to block out noise. Shock absorbers were gas – not too many cars (especially American ones) offered gas shocks. The fit and finish was exceptional.
Of course, all this mattered not because most people couldn’t “see” it . . . and it looked too much like the Monarch Ghia. The 302 2-bbl was standard fare (the only engine in California); the 351 was available outside California, but from what I understand, it was n/a after ’79.
Getting back to this car, it does seem a shame it may go to the crusher as it is pretty straight and clean. Unfortunately, you can’t save them all and we do hope the 9″ rear made its way onto a ’69-’70 mildly rodded Mustang or a sweet Mach 1 to give it extra stopping power.
It’s wild how much better looking this red square roof model is than that one in Paul’s original CC, the white one with the blue vinyl top.
I have a 1977 and a 1979 Versailles in my fleet of oldies. The ’77 has the 351W with a C4 tranny. One of the unusual features of this car is the color combination, navy blue exterior, medium blue vinyl top, and a golden tan cloth interior. The ’79 has a 302 with the Variable Venturi carburetor and a crank sensor for the ignition. The ’79 is the classier looking of the two with that formal roof, a two tone Silver/Black exterior, black vinyl top, and grey leather buckets seats with a console. The simulated spare tire hump is upholstered in the same material as the roof.
Both of the Versailles have a fully carpeted trunks (including the inside of the trunk lid) in the same carpet used on the interior.
I bought both of these cars were non-runners when I bought them. The ’77 is now running but a ways from being road legal. Specially since I have other projects ahead of them.